Below the Cliffs
by Tanaki Wolf
Summary: A beachside town holds no surprises for its resident pokémon ranger, but when Jessica encounters a visiting trainer with daring dreams, she finds herself challenged in ways she had never anticipated.
1. Chapter 1

The salty smell of damp sea air washed over Jessica as she watched the tide recede, water reflecting the bright afternoon sun that warmed the quaint buildings of Cianwood City. Her ever-attentive gaze scanned the few beachgoers, who were anything but idle sunbathers. Fishing poles dotted the shore, creating a sparsely-populated forest of bamboo that bent under the weight of fresh catches. Walking behind the caretakers of these woods, she could make out idle snippets of conversation, but all except the most animated of talkers were drowned out by the dull roar of the sea.

This tranquility was perfectly fine as far as Jessica was concerned. Even if boredom could easily set in, she enjoyed the midday heat on her skin, a hand idly thumbing the trigger on her capture styler. The anglers may prefer their waders and jackets, but having a job that allowed clothing with short legs and short arms was a blessing in Johto's warmer southern climates. The perks of being a ranger were many, especially in an area as calm as the rough waters between the Johto mainland and the western island.

The conversation nearest to her grew louder, and she turned her attention in time to see a large krabby wash onto the shore. It surely would have been a fine catch for the anglers, who had their nets at the ready, had it not been for the young boy clinging to the water type's legs. The boy climbed to his feet, sputtering and spitting out the faceful of sand with which the shore had greeted him.

Jessica smiled, noticing the three poké balls hanging off of the watertight bag strapped over the boy's shoulder. Cianwood City didn't get trainers often enough. Hosting a gym on the island was less about increasing the difficulty of obtaining a Storm Badge and more about encouraging the small town's economy, which consisted of fishing and little else. It also added a twist to an otherwise predictable day of ensuring the anglers didn't over-fish – who knew what kind of trouble a trainer would get into, especially one as young as the boy who now recalled his krabby to its poké ball before looking around in excitement.

Jessica walked over to the small trainer. "Hi there, and welcome to Cianwood City! Looks like you had a rough trip over here!"

The boy's eyes opened wide, gaze fixed upward at the ranger. "Hi miss! Yeah, my krabby's really strong, he's the best and swam all the way over here! We're gonna battle the gym! Or, we're gonna, later, after we train a little more. Fighting types are really hard." The boy's face gained a look of discouragement, but his expression steeled as he pointed inland. "But I bet there's lots of tough pokémon we can fight on the cliffs! We're all gonna get really strong! And then we'll get another badge!"

Jessica did her best to process the youngster's stream of consciousness. Seeing a trainer so excited for his journey made _her_ excited; she wore a grin on her face that only faltered as the boy finished his diatribe. "Hey now, you should be careful – those cliffs aren't usually visited by travellers, and there could be a lot of scary things up there that could hurt you or your pokémon."

The boy's expression turned downcast. "Oh. I guess..." He dug a foot into the sand, avoiding Jessica's eyes with his own. "It just looks really cool and I bet there are special pokémon up there that I'll get to battle and learn about."

Jessica chewed her bottom lip, internally conflicted. In truth, she had never climbed the cliffs, as she had never seen anyone try to scale them and thus had no reason to check on the area. Seeing the excitement drain from the newcomer twisted her stomach. He had such eagerness at such a young age. How could she lecture him so readily, like some sort of overly-protective mother telling her kids to stay far away from the tall grass?

The ranger knelt down to level with, if not sink just below, the boy's reddened face. Her hand went to his shoulder. "So, your krabby swam all the way here, huh? I don't think I've ever seen a krabby make the trip from Olivine City in one shot with a trainer in tow. You two must have a strong bond."

The boy gave her a curious look. "Yeah, I guess we do. We all do! Krabby, and Gastly, and Quilava, they're all my friends."

Jessica continued. "With a bond like that, I'll bet you and your pokémon are able to take on anything that comes your way, and you'll have no trouble tackling whatever you find on the cliffs."

The trainer stared dumbly for a second before breaking into a wide grin, shouting, "YEAH! We're gonna be the best team EVER!" He pulled away from Jessica, grabbing one of his poké balls and tossing it high to release a blue-and-cream fire type whose head and backside blazed brightly. "Thanks miss! C'mon Quilava, let's go train!"

The pokémon nodded once at the ranger and once in agreement before the twoo arrivals set off running towards the city, kicking up sand as they charged onward. Jessica straightened up, her insides settling and a serene smile crossing her face. Such confident young trainers did her heart good. After all, she had yet to see a trainer unable the outdoor challenges of Cianwood. There was no reason this one should be different, cliffs or no cliffs. As the boy and his partner disappeared around a building, the ranger turned her attention back to the all-important task of meandering the beach.

* * *

It was during the dead of night when Jessica heard a forceful _bang_ at the door of her cabin. She jerked upright in bed and focused on the scratching at thumping that continued opposite the single room. Through the windows straddling the door she could see the halo of a warm glow centred on her door, pulsing with the life of a flame. Her groggy mind managed to determine that she had a visitor, and so she dutifully sat on the side of the bed, pulled on her nightgown, slipped on her loafers, and made her way toward the heavy banging. It was not unheard of for her to be awoken by a night fisherman with a complaint over the behaviour of the wildlife; she hoped to be done with this quickly and get back to some much-appreciated rest.

So it was with some surprise that Jessica threw open the door and found her feet swept out from under her as a pokémon barrelled into her legs. The wooden floor was cold and unforgiving against her torso as she landed, but she had little time to wallow in self-pity; a chomp on her arm and a tug from the creature that had knocked her down drew her toward the threshold with urgency.

"Ugh, what, hang on, ow, stop..." Jessica grumbled as her eyes refocused on the intruder. She felt the hair on her arms prickle as she made out the shape of a quilava, head jerking and trying to tug her to some unknown destination. Nobody she had ever met on this island had a quilava, so that would mean this was…

The ranger scrambled on all fours out the door, managing to upright herself by the time she had stepped onto the sandy ground outside her cabin. "Show me!" The quliava had already sprinted ahead, and Jessica worked to close the distance as it made its way from her cabin at the inner edge of town toward the cliffs.

Even with Cianwood City's buildings as buffers, the icy sea breeze cut through Jessica's nightgown like it was nothing, making her shiver even as her body warmed from the impromptu workout of chasing the quilava. They were rapidly approaching the cliffs, and the pokémon's urgency made her stomach squirm. What could have happened that put such a fright into the quilava? She could only suspect something bad, something _very_ bad, to have the quliava running around without his trainer.

Jessica was not equipped to scale the cliffs in sleepwear and was even more worried that she would have to run back to the cabin and change in order to continue following the pokémon, but metres ahead of her at the base of the cliffs, the qulilava stopped, staring back at her with stoic intent. The clear moonlit night couldn't compare to the brightness of the previous day's sun, but as she approached, she could make out a mound in the rocky sand next to the quilava, and from a few strides away two pairs of motionless limbs. By the time she was close enough to make out the boy sprawled unnaturally on the ground, her gut had already twisted tight, threatening to upend itself, the chill through her spine colder than any night on the coast had ever been. She started backpedalling just as quickly as she had arrived, mouth opening and thankfully only releasing words. "Help! HELP!"


	2. Chapter 2

Jessica lingered in a corner of the back room of the Pokémon Centre, watching both the human and chansey nurse treat the young boy who lay sniffling quietly on the centre table. The ranger had been in the back room a couple of times in her short career, but it looked different when a trainer took the place of what should be an injured pokémon. Now, everything about the space reminded the ranger that this wasn't a facility meant to treat humans – the unbroken lines of poké balls behind glass, the chrome table that was all too large, the drab linoleum countertops, all designed to be as generic as possible for the accessibility of everything from a caterpie to a venusaur.

The nurses' calm behaviour helped settle Jessica's nerves some. If they weren't frantic, she had no reason to be frantic herself, but her breath was still laboured both from the stress of the situation and from physical exhaustion. Helping to move the boy from the cliffs to the Centre took its toll on her, and walking on sand in loafers while carrying a stretcher didn't make the task any easier.

Jessica looked down, her nightgown stopping just above her ankles and revealing the sand that caked her shoes and speckled her legs. Fortunately the trip to the Centre was also warmer than the one from her cabin, thanks to the fire-type that had kept close to the party the entire way. She shifted her gaze just a touch to see the quilava curled up beside her feet, not napping, but watching the trainer with unblinking intent.

Nurse Joy patted the boy's head. "You're lucky you only have scrapes and bruises! What were you thinking, playing on the cliffs like that?" Her voice carried too much concern for the question to be interpreted as admonishment. "I want you to stay here until the end of the morning so I can make sure you don't have any internal injuries."

The trainer sniffled again. "But, my pokémon! And other stuff! It's still on the cliffs and it's gonna get lost!" The panic in his voice rose as he spoke, on the verge of hysterics by the end. "I need my pokémon!"

The quilava at Jessica's side sprung into action, leaping over and onto the table, settling against a bandaged arm and nuzzling the trainer's shoulder affectionately. Nurse Joy stepped back in surprise, her attention shifting to Jessica, who knew exactly what was expected of her.

"Don't worry, I'll get your bag for ya." Jessica stopped herself at that simple statement, worried she might otherwise say something regrettable, like that she may have been the reason the trainer was on the cliffs in the first place.

The boy already appeared to be in better spirits with his quilava against him, and Jessica's statement only improved matters. "Please! Yes! I'm so worried about them, they might have gotten attacked by the monster too!"

Jessica processed that for a moment. "Hang on. Attacked? What happened?"

The trainer scrunched his nose, face souring. "I didn't just fall off the cliffs like some dummy. I was sleeping in my sleeping bag when all a sudden I woke up and there was this big scary… black… thing. I was so scared I just ran away as fast as I could, but I guess we were really close to the edge of the cliff, so I slipped and fell." The quilava nodded in agreement during the entire explanation, snuggling closer to the boy.

A monster? Jessica turned the thought over in her head, deciding on how to proceed. She couldn't just leave the trainer without any help, and that wasn't just because she felt obligated after sending him off into unknown territory. It was her job, after all, to help keep the relationship positive between wild pokémon and settlements. Sometimes she forgot that the relationship went in both directions; so often she was the one speaking up for pokémon, but if there was some creature on the cliffs that took offence to people, she would have to investigate. Who knew if the assailant would make its way into Cianwood City when everyone least expected? She would prefer to preempt such a disaster.

A subtle throat-clearing cough from Nurse Joy shook Jessica out of her own head, flushing with embarrassment at her apparent stupor. "Uh, hey, don't worry, I've handled big, scary pokémon before. With a strong bond, pokémon and people can take on the biggest challenges, so me and my pokémon are gonna get _your_ pokémon back, no trouble!" She stood in what she hoped would be taken as a confident pose, but the nightgown lightened the gravity of her emotion.

Nonetheless, the trainer wore a look of awe on his face. "Wow. Awesome!" He hugged his quilava with one arm, wincing in pain and relaxing it again. "Please bring them all back!"

Jessica nodded, turning to the exit. As she did, she caught Nurse Joy giving her a small smile. "Be careful out there, Jessica. I know you didn't join the rangers just to watch fishermen all day, but I'm not in the mood to treat a second patient tonight."

* * *

After a quick stop home to change into more durable clothing and footwear, Jessica found herself scrambling up the monstrous boulders of the sloped cliffside passage. The bright moonlight guided her trek, along with a a vague idea of the area from which the trainer had fallen. As a ranger, she certainly wasn't out of shape. Her job sent her across all types of terrain even in this small section of Johto, but rock climbing was not on her lift of regular activities. Even now, her arms burned with the exhaustion of pulling the rest of her body up onto head-high ledges. The trainer in the Pokémon Centre must have made surmounted the cliffs on sheer excitement and youthful energy.

After too many minutes of climbing and one last ledge to yank her body over, Jessica found herself lying on a flat, open area of the cliffs, bordered by a nearly sheer slope on the left and a just-as-steep drop-off on the right. The landing was wide enough for her to feel comfortable walking along, and likely large enough for a certain adventurer to make camp on. The path made by the two borders wound to the left and out of sight a ways down. Even in the light of the moon, her lack of familiarity with this place left the ranger uneasy, hand going to her belt and plucking the single poké ball from its clip.

Jessica immediately felt a wave of ease wash over her when her partner burst out of the capsule. Short and svelte, her croagunk wasn't an intimidating beast, but she had been partnered with him since ranger school and had no doubt in the close relationship they had developed. Even as he adjusted to the unfamiliar setting, his quiet croaks lifted Jessica's spirits and gave her the confidence to continue forward. "C'mon Króki, we have some missing pokémon to find." She paused after her first step. "And maybe one more that should stay missing."

The croagunk padded after her, the pair continuing along the landing and around the corner. The path gained a slight upward incline, but ahead Jessica could see a suspiciously organised collection of rocks and what had to have been a sleeping bag. She stopped with her croagunk beside her and sized up the camp from a few metres out. Perhaps this was the campsite she was looking for? Her visioned lowered and picked up a thick streak of black along the ground. Rubbing the heel of her shoe spread puffs of ash away from the streak. Scorch marks. This had to be the trainer's camp – his quilava must have put up a fight before the accident. The camp was lower to the ground than she had anticipated – she felt lucky that the trainer hadn't shown up earlier in the day. "Króki, let's look around for a bag with some poké balls in it. Be on guard for any big pokémon in the area."

Króki was the first one to advance. He hadn't made it a few steps forward before a broken shriek echoed across the cliffs. The hairs on Jessica's body prickled and she felt ice run down her back as the darkness of the cliff's shadow pooled between the campsite and her pokémon, rising out of the rock as an ebony spectre, a wall of pitch that blocked the way forward with an imposing presence. The croagunk stumbled backward, taking a fighting stance with one leg and a fist toward the ephemeral barrier. Jessica's thoughts were frozen as she watched the wisps of black spread wider, the centre of the spectre peeling open and showing off a ghastly crimson mouth with two empty eyes, the outlines of which were turned down in a mimicry of anger.

The ranger broke from her horrified trance and reached for her capture styler, simultaneously forcing her brain to catch up with her partner. "Króki, sucker punch!" Ordinarily she wouldn't try to engage a pokémon like this in battle, as fainting opponents instead of befriending them only caused them to wreak more trouble in the future. Right now, however, she needed to buy time to get her focus back, and if it meant leaving here with the bag and without the spectre forcing her off the cliff, she could deal with Króki giving the spectre a beat-down.

Jessica took a few steady breaths, pointing her capture styler with shaky arms at the pair engaged in combat. The shadow had opened a hole in its body which Króki's sucker punch passed right though before it closed again, and the two were now engaged in a dance of jabs from the croagunk and twists from the spectre. The shadow had yet to land an attack, and Jessica didn't want to wait long enough to see what it could do. The device in her hands pinged as it successfully identified the pokémon haunting the campsite and primed itself for action. The noise echoed in the ranger's head, surfacing her months of training and steadying her hands. "Króki, get back! Capture, on!"

A capture disc shot out of the device, narrowly avoiding the croagunk who lept back to Jessica's side. The disc arced a long path around the shadow, whose form and empty eyes turned to follow the spiralling motion, letting out a strangled noise of confusion as it shrunk its shadow a bit smaller to avoid touching the disc. Jessica's steeled focus was fixed on the creature, her body dancing along to the motion of the capture device, guiding the disc in circles that radiated calm to the monster in the centre. This was proving to be quite an easy capture; Jessica expected to need more assistance from her partner, but their opponent was making no sudden movements, no attempt to escape from the snare of light that wound tighter at each turn. One more rotation of the arm, and Jessica had constricted the loop around the shadow, which glowed the same pale colour as the moonlight illuminating the scene. The ring merged with the pokémon and Jessica deftly caught the returning disc in her capture styler, eyes not leaving the spectre for a second.

"Capture complete." Her voice was shaky, uncertain that settling the matter could really be so easy. Only a few seconds passed before the shadow moved, lethargically sinking into the ground from whence it came and dissipating into the cliffs. The ranger let her shoulders and arms slump to their side, not realising until that moment how much tension she had been holding onto during the capture. With the darkness gone, she could see a lump of fabric resting against a rock behind where the shadow had been. Her arm extended. "Króki, grab that bag and let's get out of here."

* * *

The trip back to the Pokémon Centre was uneventful. Having returned Króki to his poké ball in order to make the climb down easier, Jessica was left alone with her thoughts while she carefully crawled down the cliffside. She made a mental note to start checking these cliffs every so often – even if they weren't frequented by humans, there were clearly creatures lurking up there that could cause problems for the surrounding area if kept unchecked. It was a wonder that nothing had yet travelled down to Cianwood City, whether out of curiosity or in search of prey.

Jessica scooted off a ledge and planted her feet on the sandy ground. She could accept her mistake in sending an inexperienced trainer up to the cliffs. It was just another lesson for a slightly less inexperienced ranger trying to establish her career, albeit at a higher cost than she would have liked. Not that it was entirely her fault. Why did youngsters have to be so adventurous? She used her arm to block the glare of the light just peaking over the horizon, walking with determination towards the Centre. At the very least she could apologise to the trainer. For something. She didn't know quite how to phrase it yet.

The glass doors of the Pokémon Centre automatically spread to greet the ranger. A warm weight of relief overtook her as she noticed the injured trainer sitting in the front room, leaning back in a chair and contently sipping a juice box. He had minimal bandages on his arms and legs, and his feet were well-protected by a snoozing quilava. Nurse Joy worked idly behind the counter, preparing for what Jessica hoped would be an uneventful day of treating exhausted pokémon. In the quiet of the facility, underlined by the soft hums of machinery and fluorescent light, everything seemed so simple, so calm, as though the current customer hadn't just recovered from a potentially debilitating experience. Jessica took advantage of the atmosphere to put on a pleasant smile as she approached the trainer.

She rested the bag on the seat next to the trainer, who had just noticed her and popped his lips from the straw of the juice box. "My bag! Thank you miss!" The drink was tossed aside as the trainer lunged for his bag, digging voraciously through his gear.

Jessica watched the boy through glazed-over eyes, thinking of what to say to him to make things right. He certainly seemed happy enough already, pulling poké balls out of the bag until he procured three of them. He stared at the orbs in his hands, face scrunched in concentration. One ball was set aside. "Quilava." He lifted another ball and popped it open, a brilliant light expelling onto the floor. "Krabby." He lifted the last ball, which clicked open to reveal…

Nothing.

"Hey! Where's Gastly?!"


	3. Chapter 3

Jessica was still staring at the empty spot on the floor where the trainer had aimed his last poké ball. "Wait, what?" Her focus shifted back to the boy, disappointment slowly creeping onto his face.

"Gastly! My Gastly! Everyone else is here but he's missing!" The boy stamped his feet onto the ground and threw himself up and out of the chair, wincing at the pressure placed on those battered and bruised legs. "He was in his poké ball when I went to sleep, but now he's gone!" His voice squeaked with the pubescent quavering of someone too emotionally young to be dealing with such a tumultuous series of events.

Nurse Joy appeared out of the corner of Jessica's eye, having nearly teleported from behind the counter, squatting by the boy's side and working her bedside manner in the way only an experienced healer could. "Be careful! You could re-injure yourself moving so quickly. You should rest here for a few more hours, and take things slow for the rest of the day."

The trainer shook his head wildly, moist droplets flying from his closed eyes. "I have to find him! He's my strongest pokémon, and I love him a whole lot, and he's probably lost or scared or hurt or something!"

Jessica followed the nurse's practise, kneeling on the other side of the trainer. "Now hang on, you said he was in the poké ball while you were sleeping? We found your bag against a rock next to your sleeping bag, was that where you left it?"

The boy nodded, eyes open but staring blankly down at his two present pokémon, who stared back up with big eyes of worry. "Uh-huh. We were training super-hard today to make sure Gastly could take on the fighting-types at the gym, but it got so late and we didn't want to climb back down the cliffs, so I wanted him to rest in his poké ball. And I put it and all my stuff in my bag on that rock next to me. Maybe someone took stuff from it though! Maybe they took Gastly!"

Nurse Joy piped up. "I'm sure that didn't happen. If they wanted to take Gastly, they would have taken the poké ball too. I'm sure he's nearby. He might be lost and confused since you went missing in the middle of the night!"

Those last words rolled around Jessica's thoughts, her tired mind trying to piece together the ill-fitting pieces of the night's events. All this activity combined with a lack of sleep had her bordering on cranky, but she refused to rest until she knew that the trainer was taken care of, not just physically but mentally. Her head rolled along with her thoughts; even with a mix of guilt and career training, this responsibility was wearing on her, and her determination to make things right was wavering. Especially if it meant more hours awake and searching for a ghost-type pokémon on the cliffs…

Something inside Jessica's mind lit up. She stood upright. "I'll be right back." Walking over to a corner of the Centre, she took out her capture styler and started searching the Ranger Browser for the information it had recorded on the cliffs. Right at the top was her most recent acquisition.

_R-165 – Haunter – Ghost Group – It spits out orbs imbued with loathsome emotions…_

Every word the machine spoke made the situation more clear to the ranger. She lifted her gaze to stare pointedly at the empty poké ball still in the boy's hand, her inner eye focusing on an ebony shadow with torn eyes and a wild scream.

Jessica returned to the other two, taking a slow breath. "I know where your gastly is."

* * *

The climb back up the cliffside was arduous, but Jessica felt that her pace was positively spry when compared to the trainer lagging behind her. She didn't fault him for this – as superficial as his injuries were been, his body must have been quite strained by then. His mind had clearly not caught onto this fact, as Jessica had barely finished explaining the situation back at the Pokémon Centre before the boy had started begging to go back up the cliffs to find his partner. While Jessica was grateful for the trainer's eagerness, Nurse Joy had been less thrilled about the matter, and it was for that reason that the trainer looked prepared for a tennis match, with elastic braces cuffed around his knees, ankles, elbows, and wrists. They certainly did no harm, as the boy's frequent stumbles were softened by landing on padded limbs that would otherwise receive plenty of wear and tear.

The croagunk trailing the party kept close behind the trainer, his strong yet spindly arms at the ready to catch his temporary partner should the boy tilt too far one way. Orange rays of light weakly illuminated the makeshift path that the team carved up the rocks, and the dim edge of the morning sun over the horizon did much to help move the group forward.

Jessica shortly found herself squirming onto a familiar plateau, turning around to offer a hand to the boy huffing and groaning behind her.

"This… was easier… the first time..." The trainer was doubled-over, hands supporting his heaving torso by gripping his knees, leaving the croagunk time to scamper up after him and take his place at Jessica's side.

"Just a little further now. And no more climbs." Jessica used the respite to refresh her knowledge of the landscape. Sure enough, everything was as she remembered, the campsite hidden just around a bend in the worn trail. She squatted down on the rocky terrain, taking her own break but also lowering herself for the trainer's benefit. "You should grab the poké ball before we get too close." The ranger shrugged the pack on her shoulders, only waiting a moment before she felt the quiet shuffling of fingers in the bag. A blessing, as her legs were already shaking slightly from exhaustion.

She turned her attention to her partner pokémon, pointing to an outcrop along the wall of the bend ahead. "Króki, I want you to stay here. We don't want to risk the haunter thinking that we're attacking again. Be ready if I call you, okay?"

The stout pokémon nodded, leaving the two humans alone to instead stand watch in the indicated spot. Jessica got to her feet as she heard the click of metal claps, turning around to see the trainer clutching an open poké ball tightly. "Here it is!" The excitement in the boy's voice echoed off of the cliff's sheer faces, but his next statement came weaker and after a pause filled with polite coughs and averted eyes. "Uhm… thanks for carrying my stuff."

Jessica wasted no time in straightening up, feeling her knees pop back into place. She took a calming breath, clearing her head of particularly venomous snide comments, before giving the trainer a thumbs-up. "No worries! Now, are you ready to get your haunter back?"

The trainer gave a sudden surge forward, but faltered, and the inertia fighting his spit-second change of heart nearly caused him to nearly tumble to the ground, had Jessica not grabbed one of his hands. "Hey there! Just, stay with me, okay? It might be scary, but I'll make sure you're alright." The boy remained silent, staring ahead at the turn in the trail.

"But… what if he's big and scary forever now? What if he won't listen to me anymore? What if he just wants to fight?" His voice raised in pitch and speed. "What if he wanted to scare me away because hates me and I'm a bad trainer and he wants someone stronger?"

Jessica grabbed the boy's other hand and swung him around to face her, eyes filled with an exasperation that could have rivalled the intensity of a wild pokémon. She was done being nice, she was out of patience, and if she needed to pound some sense into this child's skull then that's exactly what she would do.

And yet, as she intimidated the poor boy in a way that only a sleep-deprived superior could, she saw in his eyes a fear deeper than some immature aversion to the dark. This was a harrowing, soul-squeezing worry. Not a worry of seeing a scary shadow, but a worry of experiencing change, of meeting a friend who he may longer know at all, who may no longer be a friend at all. This was fear of the unknown, and there was nothing to be done about that but face it head on. Preferably with the support of someone who wasn't ready to unleash hell.

Jessica released the grip on her charge. She wasn't about to try bending down again, lest she find herself unwilling to get back up without first napping, but she did her best to speak at the trainer's level. "Listen. It sounds like you've been with your haunter for a while now. I bet you've spent a lot of time training him, right?" She didn't wait for a response. "And the more you train with your pokémon, the stronger your bond with them becomes. So I'll bet that no matter what happened last night, your _friend_ wants to see you again."

A silence fell over the pair, broken only when the trainer took in a shaking lungful of air. "O-okay. Yeah… yeah, this is gonna be great! He's gonna be so much stronger now, and we're gonna be the best team ever!" The trainer turned and took off towards the bend in the path, injuries now insignificant when compared to his excitement. "I'm coming, Gastly!"

Jessica was taken aback by the child's sudden charge, calling out a half-exhausted "Wait!" before her feet caught up with her brain, sending her after him with with only a few metres between the two. That was enough distance to allow the trainer disappear around the corner, and when Jessica took the turn she nearly barrelled into the boy, now stuck fast and staring at the opaque black mist idly floating around the campsite, still placated from the earlier capture.

The trainer stood fast, and after a moment, blurted out an oblivious "Is that him?" The young voice echoed against the rock formations, easily reaching the campsite, as evidenced by the sudden stirring of the dark mass into a more solid black wall. Jessica could hear the boy trembling in front of her, but as he stood his ground, she elected to step back and against the side of the cliff – she didn't want to intrude on what would happen next.

At least, what she _hoped_ would happen next.

The ebony mist opened two thin slits of eyes to stare at the source of the voice, a pair of openings that shot open wide once they targeted the trainer. An otherworldly sound emitted from the spectre, haunting, but not of the same threatening sounds Jessica had heard earlier that night.

"H-hello?" The boy again sounded on the verge of tears, but faced the ghost as strong as ever, and Jessica could see how tight his grip was on the empty poké ball.

The black mass began to shrink down, no longer towering over the two, reaching a size just barely larger than the child itself. Ethereal vapour solidified into a grey form, eye sockets filling with white sclera, and within a matter of seconds the imposing wall of night was replaced with a single pokémon, hovering dumbly in place, eyes settling in a downcast expression. "...terrrr..."

The trainer took no step back in surprise, let out no expression of fear or disbelief or excitement. "Gastlllll… umm, Haunter? Are you okay?"

More quiet, unsure noises emanated from the pokémon whose gaze was now directed off the size of the cliff. The haunter lumbered back to take cover behind one of the larger rocks in the campsite, which was far too small to hide his larger size.

The boy set down the poké ball before creeping forward, and Jessica watched intently as he moved closer and closer to his pokémon. "It's okay. See? I'm great! The cliff wasn't that steep, and it was really soft at the bottom. It's not your fault I got so scared, really it's not. You just woke me up and I didn't expect you to be all big and scary like that!"

He was close enough now to reach out and touch his pokémon, and when the trainer's hand pressed to the haunter's forehead, the haunter lurched forward at the trainer, disembodied hands wrapping tightly around his shoulders. Jessica nearly lurched forward, fearing ill intent, but the trainer immediately started laughing as his partner gave him big, wet licks, smiling with his eyes as he did so.

"Aah, aah, haha, okay, okay, ow, not so tight, haha..."

Jessica forced out a breath she didn't realise she was holding, sinking down the rock wall into a sitting position and closing her eyes, both in rest and to shield herself from the risen sun's light pouring over the landscape. She could feel croagunk walk up beside her, sharing in the final moment of what had been a very long morning.

* * *

A couple day's passage found Jessica and the trainer on the beach once again. The young boy was bouncing in the sand, showing off his shiny new storm badge with an only slightly less excited haunter, quilava and kingler in tow.

"I only have three more badges to go! We're so strong now, I wanna head right to Olivine City and get another one!"

Nurse Joy, pessimistic as she was after so many years in the field, had not expected the trainer to recover as quickly as he had. But here he was, already itching for another adventure, although Jessica hoped it was one that involved fewer heights and unexpected evolutions. She had already reported the entire incident to the ranger union and had no doubt that the field agents further along her new friend's path would be keeping an eye out for him, lest trouble continue to follow.

The trainer turned to face the ocean, standing taller and prouder than on the day of his arrival to Cianwood. Placing the badge in his pack and sealing it up, he slung the bag over his shoulder and pumped his fist in the air. "Look out world, here I come!" He charged toward the ocean, pokémon in tow, laughing in anticipation of the challenges ahead.

To his credit, Jessica only saw him trip on the sand twice.


End file.
